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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28879761">Love Me Less</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlforthesoul/pseuds/mlforthesoul'>mlforthesoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cutesy, Eventual reveal, F/M, Fluff, little bit of adrinette sprinkled in, mostly ladrien, very little angst, will update tags as I post more chapters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:42:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28879761</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlforthesoul/pseuds/mlforthesoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ladybug bumps into Adrien before she can transform back, in their bumblings Ladybug finds herself agreeing to visit him after patrol.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Love Me Less</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Time to De-evilize!” Ladybug shouted out, as the whole surrounding area became flooded with specs of red and black light.  </p><p>Ladybug and her faithful kitty companion had just finished defeating a relatively easy villain, and were in the last moments of enjoying their victory together before they had to go their separate ways. After their iconic fist bump and attending to the confused, starstruck civilian, it was time for them to leave the scene before they ran out of time and transformed back.<br/>
The summer sun was shining brightly over Paris as Ladybug dropped into a small outlet connecting two tall office buildings on the outside of the town center. Whether it was the blindingly bright sun overhead or the post-fight jitters she never seemed to shake, Ladybug wasn’t paying quite enough attention to where she was landing. Before she could get her two feet connected to the ground, she was tumbling over. The gears in her brain turned as fast as they could as she forced out a quick string of “Oh my goodness, Im so sorry!” to whoever it was that she had just quite literally dropped in on. Her hands were pressed against a warm chest in front of her and she felt hands around her waist to ground her. </p><p>“It’s okay, I'm fine, Are you okay?” </p><p>The other party responded in a strikingly familiar voice, as Ladybug scanned his black shirted torso, up to his face and blonde hair. It seemed to click in both of their heads at the same time who the other party was, as they flailed backwards away from each other. Tinges of pink worked their way up both of their faces as they awkwardly chuckled at the situation. </p><p>“Yeah, uh yeah I’m good. Adrien, right? Sorry I wasn’t watching where I was going” </p><p>Ladybug felt her warm face slowly cooling as she was filled with a sense of pride that she managed a full sentence without fumbling. And as if all the blush from her face had made its way to his, Adrien was the one at a loss for words. He starred at her for exactly 3 heartbeats before Ladybug broke the tension again </p><p>“What are you doing back here? Did you get hurt in the attack?”  </p><p>He fumbled out a response as quickly as his racing brain would let him </p><p>“Oh, I just hid here to- Uh- Avoid it! I saw you and Chat near the other side of the park so I figured this was a safe spot to hide!” He stuttered out a lie to hide the fact he had ducked into the alleyway to drop his own transformation seconds before she dropped in. </p><p>Ladybug bought the lie she didn’t know she had been told and didn’t press any further on the subject.<br/>
“I’d offer to help you home but I’m really close to transforming back. Maybe I can make it up to you another day?” She smiled at him sweetly and felt her heart melt as he returned the gesture.  </p><p>“Yeah, maybe you could, uh, Drop In later?” He grinned as he spoke, looking proud of his terrible joke, and certainly not expecting the response he received. </p><p>“Um, Okay! I mean I have a patrol with Chat scheduled tonight but after that,” She slowly halted her thought process as she realized what she was agreeing too. Her, Ladybug, Not Marinette, being alone with Adrien Agreste, at night, in his room. Her head was spinning as she expected him to take back what he had offered, but he seemed to light up at the idea instead.  </p><p>“Actually, that works out perfectly. Father and Nathalie go to bed pretty early so once they’re away for the night no one really comes to my room to check on me, so”<br/>
As Adrien lingered on the last word of his sentence, Ladybug’s earrings beeped a fervent warning that she had almost forgotten about.<br/>
“Okay, yeah! I’ll see you tonight then, I guess!” She called out as Adrien took the warning as his sign to leave her alone in the alley.  </p><p>A flash of pink light consumed Marinette once she was confidently alone. A flying red creature zipped past her head and into her outstretched hand, where she was soon met with a small cookie and pat on the head. Marinette quickly tucked the kwami away into her purse soon after to avoid any prying eyes that could be around, and walked out of the outlet towards her parent’s bakery. </p><p> </p><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </p><p> </p><p>“Tikki, WHAT just happened?” </p><p>Marinette flung her entire body weight onto the bed in her room as she exclaimed to her kwami, arms falling over the sides as she laid on her back. </p><p>“I think Adrien just asked Ladybug to come over and she said yes even though she’s not supposed to use her powers for personal gain” The high-pitched voice was coated with a bittersweet sense of annoyance </p><p>The small girl flipped over and buried her head into her pillows as she groaned loudly.  </p><p>“What did I just do? How do I get out of this?” </p><p>Tikki hovered closer Marinette’s shoulder, gently landing on it after some consideration. She knew her holder better than anyone and that suggesting a solution never worked the way she intended.  </p><p>After a few seconds of silence Marinette continued her thought process, barely lifting her head away from the pillow for Tikki to hear<br/>
“How was I supposed to say no? It's like the only time I’ve ever been able to speak to him has been when I’m safely tucked away behind my mask. No rambling, no stumbling, no mixing up my words. And he always looks at me like I put the sun in the sky when I’m Ladybug, and when I’m boring old Marinette he barely even sees me as a friend!”  </p><p>Tikki wanted to protest. To remind her that the only reason she wasn’t closer to him outside of the mask was because of the stumbling and running away. But, again, she knew her holder well enough to know when her mind was made up, there was no changing it for anything. Instead, the kwami settled for gently stroking one of Marinette’s blue pigtails and humming quietly until she found the strength to sit all the way back up.  </p><p>“I have to get some homework done before I meet up with Chat, maybe he’ll be able to set my head straight. Throw some kind of a jealous temper tantrum and make me rethink going to another guys house in the middle of the night” </p><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </p><p>“I think it’s a great idea!”  Chat threw his hands out as he spoke. </p><p> </p><p> Ladybug got to their usual patrol rooftop a little early but her partner was already waiting there, feet dangling over the edge of the building, humming to himself. They don’t take patrol nights too serious after an akuma attack, since it’s not very common for two victims to happen so close together. Ladybug had sat next to him and groaned loudly until Chat paid attention to her and asked what was wrong.<br/>
“After we cleared the akuma, I was going to duck into an alley on the other side of the park but when I dropped in, I stumbled over the guy that I really like, which was absolutely horrifying on its own, but what's way worse is that he asked me to come to his house after patrol tonight! What did I just do?” </p><p>Chat paused for much too long for comfort before simply asking “Worse?”  </p><p>Ladybug groaned again, slightly quieter this time. “Yes, worse! He asked Me. Ladybug. I don’t know how to talk to him as myself, how am I supposed to be alone, in his room, at night? But I can't just blow him off, right? I mean how would that even go? But how would going even go? This is such a horrible idea” Ladybug was reeling as she spoke, getting more frantic with every word. That was when Chat delivered a line Ladybug was absolutely not expecting. Her jaw hung slightly lower and she gasped for words a few times<br/>
“How is it a great idea? And why would you of all people think that?”<br/>
Ladybug could see the gears turning in his head but couldn't see that he was actually searching for an answer that wasn’t ‘because I just learned I’m your crush and the boy you’re going to go see tonight, how could that not be a great idea’. </p><p> He settled on “Well you like him, right? Obviously, he likes you too if he invited you over? That’s great because you like each other! And I think it's great because if my bugaboo is happy then I am too” </p><p>“Does all this groaning sound happy to you? I have been shaking with anxiety since I talked to him earlier. I want to go over there but I'm scared” Ladybug buried her head in her hands.  </p><p>“If you want to, then do it! What's the worst that could really happen, honestly?” </p><p>Ladybug slowly lifter her head again and sighed “You know it's never that simple, kitty”  </p><p>“It can be if you make it. What’s this new boy like anyway, he must be pretty Puurrfect to be able to steal you away from me” </p><p>The famous superheroine suddenly felt very small and very warm. Her face flushed a light pink, not that anyone could tell under the guise of the dusk around them. Her brain felt like it was short circuiting as she stumbled over a few incomprehensible sounds before landing on real words.<br/>
“He’s so sweet. And caring. Humble. He’s so out of my league. I mean he’s like mega famous. But he's still so down to earth too, he never lets the fame get to him. I don’t think I've ever met someone quite like him, honestly.”<br/>
Ladybug was looking up to the sky as she spoke softly, admiring the stars and clouds. If she had’ve been paying attention to her companion, maybe she’d have seen his face soften into a smile, then shift to confusion as she said she had never met someone like him even though she was sitting right next to him.  </p><p>“Wow, yeah. He sounds like a catch. You know I can be kind and caring too, bugaboo. And I’m famous” </p><p>Ladybug snorted. A genuine snort of laughter at him </p><p>“I did say humble, right?” </p><p>“Meowch” Chat said as he stood, in fake hurt. Ladybug soon followed and stood with him, lightly punching his shoulder </p><p>“Oh, don’t act all jealous now, you asked.” </p><p>“I’m not jealous, how dare you make such an accusation”  </p><p>The two superheroes goofed around like little kids, poking fun at each other and running around rooftops. They giggled and joked until they were both out of breath. Time slipped away slowly into the night until they settled back down. </p><p>“So, are you gonna go see your new boyfriend or not? I wouldn’t want you to keep him waiting”<br/>
Chat reminded Ladybug that she still had plans that night and she took a deep breath </p><p>“He’s not my boyfriend! Ugh. Am I really ready for this?” </p><p>“You’ll be fine, milady. Just go!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you liked this chapter! So far I have 7 or 8 planned (depending on pacing and all) to finish before Feb 18 when I start my new job. I haven't written in almost 4 years now which is Crazy to me, so hopefully I haven't lost all my skill</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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